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A New Man
" " is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show, and the sixty-eighth in the series. Written by Jane Espenson and directed by Michael Gershman, it originally broadcast on January 25, 2000 on The WB network. Synopsis ANOTHER BUFFY BIRTHDAY DEBACLE — Buffy and Riley explore the extent of each other's powers as they become more romantically entwined. Feeling left out these days, Giles turns to his old buddy Ethan Rayne for camaraderie, but Giles must rely on an unlikely source when he is transformed into a demon and mistakenly hunted down by an unknowing Buffy."The Mortuary". Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Archived from the original March 31, 2001. Retrieved June 27, 2019. Summary Riley and Buffy are making out on her bed, but before it gets too serious, Willow barges into the room and tells them of a demon attack. Armed with weapons, they go to the library only to find that it's a surprise party for Buffy's 19th birthday. At the party, Giles feels out of place, especially when Buffy introduces Riley as her boyfriend, and he starts asking Giles about what he does now that he's out of a job since the school burned down. Buffy gushes about Professor Walsh and how she's "the smartest person she's ever met" and that she wasn't invited to the party because "she's got better things to do than hang out with a bunch of kids." Now able to hurt and kill demons, Spike packs his things as he moves out of Xander' basement. Professor Walsh is informed that Buffy is the Slayer. After revealing Riley's 17 captures and kills, he inquires about how many "hostiles" Buffy's killed, but Buffy keeps quiet to avoid bragging. Giles discovers a powerful demon, Barvain, is about to rise, and calls Buffy, but Willow informs him that she is with Professor Walsh. Buffy gives Riley some details about her history of slaying and he's incredibly intimidated, but impressed. Giles goes to talk with Maggie Walsh about Buffy, but is offended when she says that the lack of a father figure in Buffy's life is a problem. Willow and Xander go with Giles to the cemetery to find the demon. They are very late and fail to find Barvain. Instead, they find the area incredibly clean, which Willow suggests is the work of the Initiative. She and Xander go on about how thorough the operation is, only to discover that Giles never knew about the Initiative or that Riley and Professor Walsh are behind it. Again feeling incredibly out of the loop and unwanted, Giles sends Willow and Xander away, offering to stay in case anything happens, but after a few seconds realizes it's utterly pointless and dejectedly leaves. Ethan Rayne walks out of the shadows, speaking of interesting things to come, only to be caught when Giles re-enters the mausoleum. Giles prepares to beat Ethan, sparing him only after Ethan's hastily uttered promise of information. Going out for a drink, Ethan tells Giles that the underworld is being threatened by the Initiative, especially by something called "314". Whatever the Initiative is doing, it's throwing everything out of balance, and the underworld fears it. Buffy and Riley spar together, both holding back at first until they decide not to, even though Buffy still holds back "a little". Buffy kicks Riley hard enough to send him flying across the room. Meanwhile, Giles & Ethan get very, very drunk, with Giles opening up about how left out he feels and his annoyance that the Initiative have the demons running scared when he'd been fighting evil for 20 years, and Ethan flirts and gives his number to their waitress. Willow and her new friend Tara meet to practice magic and a simple magical exercise to float a rose goes awry, causing the rose to fly wildly around the room, like a "rose-guided missile". When he wakes the next morning, Giles discovers he's been transformed into a horned demon with incredible strength. First trying to make a call, he breaks the telephone receiver, then breaks the door off its hinges as he tries to leave the house. At breakfast, Willow lies to Buffy about where she was, saying she was practicing magic alone. She does mention that some magical force interfered with the spell she was attempting to cast. When Willow tells Buffy how "left out of the loopy" Giles has been feeling, Buffy realizes that she never told Giles about Riley and the Initiative. Giles goes to Xander's basement and tries to get him to help, but when Xander wakes up, he doesn't recognize and cannot understand Giles, who is speaking in the demonic Fyarl language. Xander starts to throw pots and pans at him and Giles runs away. The gang finds Giles's place destroyed, and are worried that the same demon that went to Xander's was responsible for hurting, or even killing Giles. Finding Giles' ripped clothing on the floor, Anya Jenkins opines, "I think he ate him." Walking through Restfield Cemetery, Giles runs into Spike. Spike recognizes Giles, and identifies him as a Fyarl demon. Because he speaks the language, Spike agrees to help find Ethan and fix things, for cash. Riley shows up at Giles's apartment where everyone is researching the demon. After finding the demon in Giles's books, they determine it can only be killed with a silver object. Spike tries to figure out how to drive Giles's car while telling Giles of his experiences with Fyarl demons. Upon spotting Professor Walsh, Giles makes Spike stop the car so he can chase her down the street in return for her comments in their last conversation. Spike gets information out of the waitress that Ethan flirted with, and finds out where he lives. Breaking into the magic shop, Buffy finds a receipt for materials purchased by Ethan. While trying to escape the commando vehicles chasing after them, demon Giles jumps out of the car while the commandos continue their pursuit on Spike. Spike later crashes the car while trying to get away. Demon Giles charges into Ethan's motel room, and attacks him. Buffy and Riley arrive on scene and while Riley takes care of Ethan, Buffy fights with demon Giles. With a letter opener she took from Giles's place, Buffy stabs the demon, but then she looks into its eyes and realizes that the demon is Giles. Fortunately, the letter opener turned out not to be made of pure silver. Giles is turned back into a human with a spell and Riley arrests Ethan. While Giles goes to watch Ethan get put away, Buffy and Riley talk about her abilities again. Buffy later apologizes for not telling Giles about Riley and the Initiative, but Giles is worried about her safety and whom she trusts. Professor Walsh is upset that Riley disobeyed orders for Buffy, but says she thinks that Buffy will "work out". Passing through security doors, Walsh enters a room labeled "314". Continuity *This episode marks the only time Buffy's birthday is celebrated on the show in which the inevitable unfortunate event doesn't happen to her, although to someone close to her, as opposed to "Surprise", "Helpless", "Older and Far Away". *Maggie Walsh questions Buffy how many "hostiles" she has killed; it's known she has killed more than a total of 100 demons and vampires.Buffy Summers' slay count *The crypt in which Giles encounters Ethan later becomes Spike's home for the next few seasons. *Crashed by Spike, this episode marks the last appearance of Giles's Citroën, to be replaced by a red BMW in "Real Me". *Ethan warns Giles about the number 314, that is eventually revealed to be the room in which Adam has been built for the 314 Project ("The I in Team"). *Similarly, in his next appearance, Ethan will help Buffy to identify the number 30 (The Long Way Home, Part Three), revealed to be the room in which he'll be maintained captive (''Part Four''). *It's revealed that Spike is able to understand Fyarl language. *From this episode on, Tara will appear in every episode of the fourth season. *Buffy will eventually use Giles' transformation into a Fyarl to prove she's herself, recalling the event while in Faith's body in episode "Who Are You?". *Ethan will stay imprisoned by the Government until his assassination (The Long Way Home, Part Four). Appearances Individuals *Barvain *Riley Finn *Rupert Giles *Alexander Harris *Jessica Harris *Anya Jenkins *Tara Maclay *Ethan Rayne *Willow Rosenberg *Spike *Buffy Summers *Maggie Walsh *Unidentified waitress Organizations and titles *Initiative *Scooby Gang *Slayer Species *Fyarl demon *Human *Olvikan *Vampire Events *Apocalypse *Buffy Summers' birthday *Feast of Delthrox Locations *Sunnydale **Harris residence **Initiative facilities **Lucky Pint **Maple Court ***Espresso Pump ***Magic Box **Restfield Cemetery ***Alpert mausoleum ***Hawley mausoleum **Rupert Giles's apartment **Sunnydale Motor Inn **Sunnydale Park **University of California, Sunnydale ***Rocket Cafe ***Stevenson Hall Weapons and objects *2GPU947 *''Mystery of Acathla'' Rituals and spells *Fyarl transformation reversal Death count *11 vampires and 6 demons, captured and killed by Riley Finn (only mentioned). Behind the scenes Production *Producer Doug Petrie has mentioned the creative process for this episode' metaphor: :"Well, we felt that Giles was a little bit underserved at this point in the season and wanted to give him something to be doing. It's always fun to have Ethan Rayne back in the mix. Really, this is Giles' mid-life crisis episode. It was the first time that we got to deal with a metaphor that was that adult, not teen-orientated at all, and quite a bit of fun. … There were a couple of ideas kicked around. We were talking about a portal. We were talking about him becoming younger, him becoming older, him kind of recapturing his youth by becoming — I don't think seriously — but I know Jane Espenson was kicking around the idea of getting teenage actors to play teenage versions of Giles and Ethan and to have young Ethan try to seduce Buffy. That was an intriguing idea but ultimately we went with a pretty straight-on metaphor of his questioning himself in the middle of his life and he's turning into a monster.""Doug Petrie, Buffy Producer's guide to season four - A New Man". BBC - Cult - Buffy. Retrieved January 23, 2018. *This episode marks the final appearance of Robin Sachs as Ethan Rayne in the television series. *From now on, Emma Caulfield is credited with "as Anya" under her name, for the rest of the fourth season. Deleted scenes *A line of Spike wasn't aired in the final cut of episode. It's after he smashed into the building with Giles's car: :Spike: "I can kill demons. I can crash cars… Things are looking up!" *Riley talks about his father: :Riley: "My dad was out of work for a while back. He sells farm equipment. It was rough." *Banter at the restaurant: :Waitress: "You're not Roger Moore." :Ethan: "God's truth. Tell her, Ripper." :Giles: "What? Oh. He's not Roger Moore." *Buffy is apologetic: :Buffy: "I'm so sorry about, you know, stabbing you in the heart." Pop culture references *Riley compares Buffy's strength to fictional superhero Spider-Man. Goofs, bloopers & continuity errors *When Giles is dusting his book case and pulls down a book to read something in it, the pages of the book are blank. *When Giles comes to Xander's basement for help, we see laundry hanging up behind Giles' head. A pair of briefs alternates between hanging correctly on the drying line to hanging limply with only one side attached. The change happens at least four times, going from one state to the other. *When Giles opens the front door of his apartment, he pulls it completely of its hinges and it topples against the settee to the right of the doorway, but when Buffy and the Scoobies arrive, the door is back upright and still attached by its topmost hinge. *As Giles drinks with Ethan in the pub, the beer in his glass changes levels. It's full when Giles faces the camera and it's dramatically emptier when the camera points across the table toward Ethan. Music *12 Volt Sex — "Over Divine" *Other Star People — "Then There's None" *Scott Ellison — "Down Down Baby" *Jessica Sheely — "In good time" (plays briefly while Buffy and Riley make with the kissing) *Christophe Beck — "Fyarl in the Morning" International titles *'Armenian:' "Նոր մարդ" (New Man) *'Czech:' "Nový muž" (New Man) *'French:' "314" *'German:' "Metamorphosen" (Metamorphoses) *'Hungarian:' "Az új fiú" (The New Boy) *'Italian:' "Un Uomo Nuovo" (A New Man) *'Japanese:' "新しい男" (New Man) *'Polish:' "Ktoś nowy" (Someone New) *'Portuguese:' "Um Novo Homem" (A New Man) *'Romanian:' "Un Om Nou" (A New Man) *'Russian:' "Новый человек" (New Man) *'Spanish (Latin America and Spanish):' "Un Hombre Nuevo" (A New Man) Other *This episode is included in The Slayer Collection: Giles DVD. Gallery Promotional stills A New Man Willow Xander.jpg A New Man Buffy.jpg A New Man Willow.jpg Giles 4x12.jpg Giles-Xander 4x12.jpg Behind the scenes A New Man Anthony Head.jpg Quotes References de:Metamorphosen fr:314 nl:A New Man Category:Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes Category:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4